Quorra: What is the Sun?
by THECURSOR
Summary: Pre-Tron Legacy, Quorra and Flynn have a conversation about the sun, the moon, and where Users come from. A small piece of Quorra's education.


Quorra: What is the Sun?

By THECURSOR

I own Nothing

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The Old Man was meditating when Quorra tapped on his shoulder. She always hated to disturb him when he meditated, afraid that she had somehow destroyed some brilliant thought process far beyond her comprehension. He was probably dreaming up new programs, new networks, data streams that would blow her mind.

It was never wise to disturb the creator of your universe when he was working but her curiosity was starting to consume her. "Flynn?" She whispered.

"Yeah?" He wasn't annoyed, he sounded pleased. He must've been thinking about Sam again. Flynn was always happy after he thought about Sam.

"What is the sun?"

Flynn blinked at her and she was worried she asked a bad question.

"Well, I've never had to explain it to anyone. Why do you ask?"

Quorra held up one of his books, Huckleberry Finn, and pointed to a page. "It's in the books you read and I was wondering if you knew what it was. The authors never tell you what it is."

He laughed and leaned against his meditation pillow, "Man that is an outta sight question. Never thought anyone would ever ask me that." He was talking funny again. "I'm gonna have to think for a minute…the sun is, well…

Flynn stood up and spread his arms out wide. "The sun is this great big ball made out of gas and heat. It's millions of miles away from my planet but it's so big and so bright that it still fills up the sky with light."

"It sounds pretty."

"It is pretty."

"So it just sits in the sky? Forever?"

Flynn shakes his head and he makes another circle with his hands and moves it around an imaginary point in space, "No, not forever. Every twelve hours or so the Earth turns on it's axis in space-"

"Space?"

"I'll cover that another time, anyway the Earth turns on it's axis and the sun drops below the horizon. That's when the moon rises."

"The moon?"

"Yeah, it's a big rock that revolves around the Earth. It's a lot closer in space than the sun and it reflects light from the sun back at the earth. On clear nights…man it's beautiful. Big and silver." He smiled at the memory of an astral body he loved, "One time at Cal-Tech I fell asleep on the roof of my dorm, I woke up in the middle of the night and there was the moon just hanging over me. Big as life."

Quorra closed her eyes and tried to picture the sun and the moon together in the sky. It was, well, it was a little inconceivable but it was beautiful. "It sounds wonderful. How long did it take you to program it?"

That earned her a laugh, a big thunderous laugh that fill the room. "Did I say something wrong?" She asked innocently.

"No, it's nothing. It's just that I didn't create the sun and the moon."

"Who did?"

Flynn smiled again and patted her on the shoulder. "I don't know. I guess God."

"God?"

"Yeah, I didn't believe in him when I was younger but when you get older, you start to wonder about your place in things. Suddenly believing in God doesn't seem as far fetched."

"What's God?"

"Well, he's…I guess you could say God would be my User."

Quorra's brain turned on it's axis. The man who created a universe, millions of people, had a creator? "You have a User?"

"I suppose." He shrugged, "I mean that's what some people believe and I've started to believe it too. The Great Computer Programmer in the sky." His eyes twinkled as he leaned back and imagined that possibility. It was always interesting to watch Flynn imagine things. "Hopefully I won't meet him too soon."

"Meet him?" Quorra trembled, "You mean your creator might come here?" The idea that a being so powerful that he could write a User into existence was terrifying, Flynn didn't seem to fear him but she had no desire to see someone that powerful in person.

"No, if he exists I won't meet him till I die."

She tilted her head at the word die and considered it for a moment. No, the concept was still a little alien to her. "Die?"

"Humans don't de-rez, they grow old and die."

"Grow…"

"Old, grow old and die. It's what we do."

"But Users are supposed to be immortal!" Her voice was soft and childlike. The very concept disturbed her: to die, death. Not de-rez, not get corrupted or frozen or repurposed. Die. It sounded so…final.

Flynn got quiet for a long time and suddenly spoke up, his voice had a strange distance to it, like he was a million miles away from his little house off the grid. "Everything can die, sweetheart. Everything, no matter how good it is, has a time limit on it and what matters is what you do before you run out of time." He stroked the side of her cheek and pushed a strand from her hair as he spoke and Quorra see the weight of time on her master's face, "To you I must seem like something impossibly old. You count your time in seconds and move so fast. Me, I count time in years and I know I don't have as many left as I used to."

He got back up and returned to his meditation, using his mind to take him beyond anyone and everything. Suddenly she could see just how old her mentor really was, how ancient he seemed. Flynn wasn't a god, he was a broken man trapped in a box and that made her feel very sad

"How long do you have before you die?" Quorra asked. It was important that she find out, because she couldn't imagine life without him.

"If CLU doesn't kill me?" Flynn said without opening his eyes, "I've got a few more years left in me." He began his ritual breathing again, "Either way, I'd like to see my son before it happens."

Quorra decided to leave. To take the roadster into the city and take her mind off the idea of life without the Old Man. She grabbed her boots and her data sword, but before she left she turned back to him. "Maybe," Flynn looked over his shoulder as the hopeful tone in her voice caught his attention, "Maybe your User will help you?"

Flynn smiled, "I'm sure he will."

The End


End file.
